On Saturday, Dec. 18, the Pritzker Prize–winning architect Richard Rogers, Hon. FAIA, died in London at the age of 88. In addition to many honors, including a knighthood and the 2019 AIA Gold Medal, Rogers received international acclaim and sparked worldwide controversy for his work on iconic places such as the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Lloyd’s of London building in London, and 3 World Trade Center in New York.
Born in Florence, Italy, on July 23, 1933, Rogers told ARCHITECT in 2019 that he first realized he wanted to be an architect “when [he] met [his] Italian uncle Ernesto Rogers, BBPR architect and editor of Domus, who encouraged [him].” From there, Rogers officially began his career in London where he studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. Rogers then went on to attend Yale University School of Architecture in New Haven, Conn., on a Fulbright Scholarship, earning his M.Arch.
Flickr user Jean-Pierre Dalbéra via a Creative Commons license
The west façade of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
After studying under greats including Paul Rudolph and completing a stint at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in New York, Rogers returned to London, launching Team 4 in 1963 alongside Norman Foster, Hon. FAIA, Wendy Cheesman, and Su Rogers (nĂ©e Brumwell). Team 4’s completed work includes the Skybreak House in Radlett, Hertfordshire (1966), and the Reliance Controls Factory in Swindon, England (1967), but the firm ultimately dissolved. In 1971, Rogers joined forces with Renzo Piano, Hon. FAIA, to form Renzo + Piano and win the commission for the revolutionary Centre Pompidou in Paris. Upon the Pompidou’s completion in 1977, Rogers created his eponymous firm the Richard Rogers Partnership—now Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSH+P)—in London.
RICHARD ROGERS, ARCHITECT 1933 – 2021
— Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (@RSHParchitects) December 19, 2021
It is with deep sadness that the partners and staff of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners acknowledge the death of our colleague, friend, and founder partner Richard Rogers. Full statement: https://t.co/io2nukjTnF #RichardRogers pic.twitter.com/41BrbFAxac
“If a tribute is about a life and not a departure, because Richard’s legacy will live on, then how do I start to define the life and work of my dear departed friend,” wrote Foster in a tribute published by his firm Foster + Partners. “Do I start with the person and move onto the architecture or vice versa? Either way will work because the one is a manifestation of the other.”
In the more than 40 years since the firm’s founding, RSH+P has completed projects around the world including Maggie’s West London (2008), and the Leadenhall Building (2014), in London; T4 Madrid-Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain (2005); 8 Chifley in Sydney, Australia (2013); the BBVA Bancomer Tower in Mexico City (2016); and 3 World Trade Center in New York (2018). Rogers’s last project is located on the expansive grounds of Château La Coste—a vineyard and art destination in the south of France. Completed earlier this year and dubbed the Richard Rogers’ Drawing Gallery, the 1,300-square-foot steel pavilion cantilevers from a sloping hillside, creating a whimsical contrast with the surrounding landscape.
Joe Woolhead
3 World Trade Center in New York
“Through Richard, as a young graduate, I learnt that architecture was about much more than the design of buildings, its social and political impacts were equally important,” wrote RSH+P senior partner Ivan Harbour in a tribute to Rogers on the firm’s Instagram. “He gave me the opportunity when I was very young to explore and originate unencumbered in the highly creative environment that he presided over. I am indebted to him for that trust he placed in me.”
James Reeve
The Richard Rogers' Drawing Gallery at Château La Coste
In the same 2019 article referred to above, Rogers told ARCHITECT that he was happiest “at sunset in the Val d’Orcia [in Tuscany] with my family and friends looking at the view of Monte Amiata eating zucchini flowers.”
Rogers’s passing has been widely mourned by members of the design community on social media.
RIP Richard Rogers — Patscenter in East Windsor, NJ, from a few years ago pic.twitter.com/N7fXbVzDa1
— Alexandra Lange (@LangeAlexandra) December 19, 2021
“I am so deeply saddened by the loss of my oldest and closest friend, Richard Rogers. Over the time since we met, almost exactly 60 years ago as students at Yale University, Richard has been a kindred spirit.”
— Foster + Partners (@FosterPartners) December 19, 2021
Read Norman Foster's tribute to Richard Rogers https://t.co/3dboTRgLmX
Heartbreaking news: another huge loss for architecture in 2021. A gracious man and a glorious talent. RIP, Richard Rogers https://t.co/x4Td4o3ocB
— Paul Goldberger (@paulgoldberger) December 19, 2021
An architect of tremendous humanity and vitality and visual genius, one of the greats, and great not least for his deep commitment to civil society and the life of the streets.
— Michael Kimmelman (@kimmelman) December 19, 2021
Richard Rogers, Architect Behind Landmark Pompidou Center, Dies at 88 https://t.co/WoD0CnAlA4